Category: Trail Projects

And so trail/restoration projects begin another year. A small team of NMVFO volunteers came together for a mid-week event at Coronado Historic Site to thin dead trees and cut down invasive plants in a thickly overgrown section of the bosque.

We had three chainsaws going at once, with the rest of the volunteers “swamping” (removing and transporting) branches to huge piles for chipping/shredding later in the year.

20+ NMVFO volunteers met at the Coronado Historic Site in Bernalillo, and hiked to the bosque along the Rio Grande to remove invasive tamarisk (salt cedar) and Russian olive trees, and leave the surviving native plants.

The brush was quite thick. We used hand saws to cut trees close to the ground, and then dragged cut limbs and dead trees to piles that will later be chipped/shredded.

Will this be NMVFO’s last project for the year?

NMVFO and Tree New Mexico volunteers and USFS staff planted 500 pine and douglas fir seedlings in a burn area near Red Canyon Campground in the Manzanos.

This was the first time several of us got a chance to plant conifer seedlings, and we were eager to learn. A dibble tool makes a wedge shaped hole in the ground, which is a good fit for the conical root ball of the seedling. Often we will try to locate the seedling near a stump or log for extra protection.

Fill the hole with dirt, taking care to remove all air pockets, which would damage the roots.

Then we add a plastic cover to protect from deer and weather, which will be removed in about 2 years.